Wollongong Radio

Looking at i98's website & C91.3's Wikipedia page just then, both stations now air "Saturday Night Party Hits" at 9pm-Midnight Saturdays, playing all the party favourites from the 70s to today & is presented by Tony M.
In the Wollongong market, it goes head-to-head with a similar program (but automated) on Wave FM, while in the Campbelltown market, it goes up against WS-FM's "Jukebox Saturday Night", which is more or less similar to i98/C91.3's program. For listeners in Sydney (as well as in Campbelltown), this program would provide a decent alternative to the offerings on among the Sydney commercial music radio stations.

Looking at their Now Playing/Recently Played feature on both their websites this afternoon, i98/C91.3 seems to be playing slightly more 80s music on a typical hour, probably as a reaction to MIX 106.5 becoming more of a 2Day clone.

Looking at i98's website & C91.3's Wikipedia page just then, both stations now air "Saturday Night Party Hits" at 9pm-Midnight Saturdays, playing all the party favourites from the 70s to today & is presented by Tony M.

The same guy that does HITstory? Do they air on any other stations, because HITstory definately has the sound of one of those weekend networked music magazines

Do they air on any other stations, because HITstory definately has the sound of one of those weekend networked music magazines

Well, the only other station the program is heard on is i98's sister station in Campbelltown, C91.3.

Even though it's not mentioned on the sub-title of this thread, I guess C91.3 can be discussed on this thread, even though it serves the Campbelltown market, not Wollongong. This is due to the fact that they share quite a lot of programming with i98, particularly on weeknights & weekends. Also, its music playlist is shared between both stations most of the time, even when local programming is on for each station.

Looking at the ad on this week's Campbelltown local newspaper, Macarthur Chronicle, C91.3 in Campbelltown is now airing "Rob Doorey's At Work Network" at 9-10am weekdays, which means that the "Ten From Then", which airs on the same timeslot, is now heard only on i98.

Speaking of i98, looking at their "Recently Played" feature on their website just now, they've played "Panama" by Van Halen sometime in the last 15-20 minutes. I guess one could say that i98 plays a better variety of music than Wave FM at present, even though i98's format is more CHR-skewed.

Speaking of i98, looking at their "Recently Played" feature on their website just now, they've played "Panama" by Van Halen sometime in the last 15-20 minutes. I guess one could say that i98 plays a better variety of music than Wave FM at present, even though i98's format is more CHR-skewed.

A few weeks back I heard both i98 and Wave play Van Halen - Dreams at the same time, one only a few seconds ahead of the other

A few weeks back I heard both i98 and Wave play Van Halen - Dreams at the same time, one only a few seconds ahead of the other

Interesting. Normally, Wave & i98 playing the same song at the same time would normally apply to more recent songs, not 80s songs. Speaking of which, last Saturday at around 4:10pm, both Wave & i98 were playing the latest Powderfinger song at around the same time.

What this says is that for a stand-alone region of nearly 300,000 people, it's quite ridiculous that the region's only two commercial radio stations are actually sounding similar to one another, all in the name for ratings. At least the Sydney stations can be heard into many parts of the region quite well, so that rock music radio fanatics can listen to 2MMM or Classic Rock instead, while older music radio listeners can listen to WS-FM or 2CH instead.

According to an ad in my local Campbelltown newspaper that I've received this morning, the "Ten From Then" on C91.3 is now on-air sometime during Lyndal Rogers' 12-3pm slot instead of the 9-10am slot (due to their "At Work Network"), where i98 still airs the "Ten From Then" on its original slot.

In case you haven't heard, Wave is back to 'playing whatever we feel like.' Told you it was familiar.

I thought so too when I flicked over to Wave FM briefly over the last couple of days & then compared it with what i98 was playing at that time. At around 2:30pm on Monday, Wave was playing "Hot n Cold" by Katy Perry, whilst i98 was playing "Bulletproof" by La Roux, both of which are commonly heard on each other's stations. Then just after 10pm on Tuesday, Wave was playing "Mr Mysterious" by Vanessa Amorosi, while i98 played "Funhouse" by Pink.

What this says to me is that after their ill-fated "Radio That Rocks" phase (without having a Nielsen radio ratings survey during that phase), Wave have gone back to what they're doing best for the last 4 years: being pretty much a carbon copy of i98.

Oh well, I guess I'll stick with the ABC & Sydney stations when in Wollongong & the Illawarra region, because Wave & i98's music formats both being pretty much the same to one another doesn't really appeal to me (I'm not really into 'Hit Music' radio), yet I'm only nearly 24 years of age. Personally, when in Wollongong & the Illawarra region, I would listen (in no particular order) to Classic Rock, Triple M, WS-FM, 2EC (through 765AM from Bega in areas right next to the coastline), ABC Illawarra & Triple J first before bothering with either Wave or i98.

It is truly a sad state of affairs on what Wave & i98 have been reduced to, considering that they were sounding quite good around 5 to 15 years ago, when they both had a rather distinct music format from one another, with Wave having a "Hits & Memories" format, while i98 had a "Today's Best Music" format.

But unfortunately none of those work. Their music variety lacks, their music library is way too small. There are so many songs they COULD be playing, but choose not to. They stick to what they know their loyals like, but don't take risks in any way to try to get more of an audience - and I think taking risks is what makes radio great. Shame really.

Their music variety lacks, their music library is way too small. There are so many songs they COULD be playing, but choose not to. They stick to what they know their loyals like, but don't take risks in any way to try to get more of an audience - and I think taking risks is what makes radio great. Shame really.

Exactly my thoughts, regarding Wave FM. It used to be quite a good station up to about 5 years ago, but has since gradually gone downhill, all in the name of competing heavily with i98 instead of trying to stand out further from its main competitor.

On another note, looking at their Now Playing/Just Played feature on their respective websites, it seems that i98 & C91.3 have reinstated their own music logs. This means that outside of networked programming (eg. "After Hours" with Stolzy at 6-10pm weeknights), each of those stations has a completely different music logs, despite still having similar music formats to one another.